‘Parallel Societies Emerging’ In Radical Islamist-Linked Pre-Schools

LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP/Getty Images1 Mar 2016

A senior Austrian minister is taking action based on the findings of a recent report into the state of Islamisation in the country’s schools, and is calling for more stringent controls on Islamic education.

Austrian People’s Party minister for foreign affairs and integration Sebastian Kurz made the remarks following the completion of a major report into Austria’s schools system, which found over 150 “problematic” Islamist schools in the country, with 10,000 children in the schools in Vienna alone. Responding to the findings, Mr. Kurz said he wanted to introduce more controls on the so-called Islamic kindergartens, remarking that without action there was a risk of “parallel societies emerging”, reportsTheLocal.at.

The minister had previously said “the ideology of political Islam has no place in learning” and that now the problem had been laid out in the report, “the right policies can now be set”. Acting on the new information, the government was embarking on a new and comprehensive investigation of all Muslim schools.

Breitbart Londonreported in January on the report before it was released, as author and University of Vienna academic Ednan Aslan spoke out on his findings for the first time. Having discovered at least 150 Islamist problem schools, he blasted government inspectors for having failed to detect them already, and concluded the authorities were “naive” in their approach to radical Islam, suggesting there was even an unofficial policy of collusion with the radical schools.

The authorities were, he said, in effect turning a blind eye to the problem.

Professor Aslan’s team found abundant radical literature in Austrian schools but found these “intellectually Salafist” institutions escaped detection by fastidiously sticking to the word, if not the spirit of the law, and so remaining below the radar. He wrote: “They are very legalistic, attaching great importance to education and avoiding conflicts with the legislation, but internally operate a conservative, very [doctrinaire] theology… in a Kindergarten the status of legislation in Islamic theology is valued higher than reason, the woman is depicted as inferior to the man”.

Now released, the report found the teachers in these schools — which are entirely heavily religious Muslim women —could hardly speak German. The operators of the schools taught the children under their care that polygamous marriage as practised in Islamic countries is “inevitable and necessary”, and that “Europe as we know it will cease to exist in a few years”, reportsKronen Zeitung.

The report also found that many of the schools were being run like businesses and likened to kebab shops, taking millions of Euros of public money and siphoning it off to terror organisations. It was reported cash flows from the City of Vienna to these privately operated schools was then used to fund terror organisations such as the Islamic Brotherhood. At least €30 million is thought to have been paid out.